Those warning messages only tell you that Micro$oft has not certified your particular drivers. These days, very few drivers get certified. First, M$ takes longer to certify than a given driver release stays posted. Second, it costs to have M$ certify, which is their whole point. They want manufacturers to pay, which wouldn't be so bad if only one or two releases are made, but today's graphics industry is so frenzied, that lots of drivers can get released in a year or so. My experience with multiple displays is limited, but it would appear two separate sets of drivers are used, one for each monitor. That makes sense, since it's a lot like having two separate cards. I do know that for some dual setups, that the "secondary" monitor has lesser abilities than the primary, which eases the load on the card. I suspect that by removing driver support for the secondary monitor output, you eliminated the need for "dual-monitor" support. Thus, Microsoft's stock driver suffices. The S3 name you reported, is only stating the manufacturer of your card, which Plug-n-Play automatically obtains from the hardware. You can verify the drivers actually used, by clicking on the Driver Details button on your card's property page (their S3 driver is called S3.sys, though you installed S3's own). "Standard Graphics Adapter" is Win-speak for any "unspecified" card, which can minimally run using the plain-Jane driver, vga.sys. The VGA standard is old, but almost every Windows-compatible card supports it. Today's cards use SVGA (Super-VGA) or UVGA (Ultra-VGA). Inter-manufacturer bickering, make the latter terms somewhat vague, so they're less used now. However, the Standard Graphics Adapter/VGA thing is Windows' fallback, when all else goes wrong, or Windows doesn't know what else to do. Specifying specific drivers as you did, clears things up for Windows, and also tells it what your card is capable of. You can delete references to "Standard Display Adapter" all you want; vga.sys will still be there, ready to take over in a pinch. When you removed the secondary monitor support, you simply removed drivers for the extra monitor, which happened to be using the inadequate VGA drivers. When you rebooted, and Windows found your card's secondary display support again, it was trying to setup the "extra" driver, so dual-monitor could work. No harm in avoiding it, you'll just be limited to one monitor. However, you could still set it up, but you'd just have to make sure you select "Have Disk", and avoid automatic selection via MSDISP.inf, as before. Then, everyone would be happy. Just don't let Windows default to VGA drivers, and you'll be fine. All this made me so curious, I found some related articles in MS' Knowledge Base: "http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q179602" and "http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q182708".

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Dear Jeff: Thank you for taking the time to continue to persist with me through this issue. It is NOT resolved yet and I am getting confused!!! I read what you wrote and found myself getting more confused where I thought I was starting to understand things... You wrote: > Can you explain this in plainer language? I don't get what you are saying?...I don't have two monitors. I only have one. That is one reason why I am so confused...Would there have to be an extra video card or some other 2nd hardware inside my computer in order for windows to be detecting two display adaptors? confusing... >. When you say "their" S3 Driver is called S3.sys, do you mean that Microsoft has a version of S3 driver and that S3 has another version? again, I'm confused... > So, is Windows detecting both an S3ViRGE card and ANOTHER CARD IN MY SYSTEM that it cannot recognize? Do I need to open my computer and look for something to then remove?? I don't need two cards, do I? Someone recently re-built parts of my computer. Maybe he did something screwy that I don't know about.... I am totally confused by these last few paragraphs. I don't understand what you are saying...I am sooooo sorry. I really want to get it, but I am not following it. I read it and it sounds logical but it isn't registering somehow. One sentence seems to contradict the one before it. I'm not saying you wrote it that way, but that's the way it reads to me. I hope you can clarify this. I basically don't get it and don't know what to do. Every time I start the computer, I am getting the same message that windows recognizes new hardware and asks me to install the drivers and I just keep cancelling. You seem to say that the message is going to keep coming up. Is that correct? I guess I just wonder how to resolve this problem and just have one display adapter listed without problems detected AND not have windows keep detecting new hardware everytime I reboot. > I did read the Microsoft Articles you suggested too which were interesting... Again, I look forward to your response and clarification. PS. If you are comfortable and it is acceptable to you to e-mail me directly with your response, that's fine. If not, I will keep checking back here. Thanks again! I look forward to solving this nagging issue.

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No problem. That's the price for trying to squeeze 10,000 words into 1,000: meanings get lost. I really have to stop trying to shorten my writing, and just accept that I'm a rambler. I realize you only have one monitor, but your card is capable of feeding two, so it expects driver support for both [possible] monitors. I only meant that having dual-monitor capability, is something like having two cards, not that you have or need two. You can forget I brought it up. I had a feeling all those "S3" words would mess things up. I meant that Microsoft Windows 98's own driver for most S3 cards, is named "S3.sys". Your original problem was that Win98 couldn't figure out that your card needed that driver, and fell back on the old vga.sys instead. If S3.sys had been loaded, you never would have had any problems, so if you ever see S3.sys listed for your card in the future, feel assured that it's just fine. The drivers you last told me you installed, were made by S3 Incorporated, the company that made the Virge chip on your card. There are actually several files for that, so I didn't list them. Those drivers are fine to use, and you installed them when you selected "S3VIRGE.INF" during the driver update. All that's fine. I didn't mean to suggest you have two video cards, just that having a card with dual-monitor support, is kind-of like having two cards. Unless you sprung money for an extra card, I doubt you have another. Again, don't worry about that; I was just thinking "out loud". I did, however, expect that Windows would re-detect your card every time you reboot. But the solution is simple: just take the same steps you took when installing the S3Virge drivers before (you can ignore why you're doing this again). Make sure you tell Windows, when it displays the Hardware Wizard, that you will specify which drivers to use. DON'T LET WINDOWS TRY TO FIND THE "CORRECT" DRIVERS FOR YOU (that's what caused this whole mess). I explained how in the second paragraph of "Response Number 2" above, and now you need to do the same from the Harware Wizard. As long as you get to update the drivers for your video card, it doesn't much matter how you got to it. This time, you'll be getting to it from the Hardware Wizard, instead of manually from the Display control panel. Just make sure you get to click on "Have Disk" (that really means you have "S3VIRGE.inf"). This last driver install should solve your problem. Sorry for any confusion, and I think moving to email is a good idea, as I'm liable to use up this server's entire hard drive! You can email me at the address under my first name.

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Dear Jeff: Sorry! In the response above, the stuff I cut and paste back from your previous response didn't show up it seems so you may not know exactly what I was referring to above. It was the last three paragraphs of "Response # 7" that I found confusing... I did get a response from the Microsoft tech team via e-mail and wanted to include the correspondence: MSTech wrote: Before you used the S3 video adapter, did you use any other video adapter? It is possible that two display adapters are on your computer and one of them is not installed correctly. My Response: Someone did replace my last video card with this S3 video card. However, just to be sure that there aren't two adapters inside, I opened up the computer after receiving your e-mail and double checked and there is only ONE video card installed--the Jaton S3.. The previous one was removed. My further comments to MSTech: Continuing on with your e-mail, I tried the steps you (MSTech) recommended: restarting in safe mode, removing whatever was in display adaptors and restarting. When I did, I noticed that it detects two different hardwares: It detects the S3 ViRGE DX/GX and their drivers and then it detects the Standard Display Adapter and prompts to install drivers for them (why it detects TWO display adapters is something I just don't get if there is only one video card inside). Anyway, I selected and installed the S3 driver first and then re-booted and again, two versions of S3 were then listed under Display Adapters, the top one with the yellow exclamation mark, so it is back to the same problem. Then, I removed the Standard VGA and rebooted and tried installing the MSDISP.inf to see what would happen, and I get the Yellow exclamation mark under the Standard VGA and not under the S3 ViRGE anymore!! It's like the problem just switches from area to the other, but the underlying problem is not being solved. So, that is the latest. How do I get the computer to just accept ONE (S3) display adapter and driver and stop looking for the Standard VGA Display adapter and driver? Isn't that what I want to get it to do? I don't have two monitors, don't want two monitors, and don't understand if an extra driver is causing this problem that I can just delete or what it is?? ps. to Jeff: I read the Microsoft website about enable multiple displays and followed along: Double-click Display, and then click the Settings tab. In the Display box, click the adapter you want to use, and then click the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" check box to select it. FYI,when I did that, there is only one Adapter listed in that section, the S3 ViRGE, and the "extend Windows desktop" box is disabled and can't be clicked on. So, that is the latest. Thanks for hanging in there to help.

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OK, you definitely have just one card, as we assumed all along. I think what's confusing you (and me too a bit), is the detection of the need for two sets of drivers. It doesn't matter that you have just one card and just one monitor. For all we know, your card has two chips on it, or something (it's not unheard of). If you give me the exact model number of the card, I can figure this out for you. However, I still think you can solve all your problems by installing the "second" set of drivers, after Windows reboots. You seem to want to prevent Windows from installing the "second" set, for unwarranted reasons (that we know of). Just go along with Windows, and make it happy by installing the "second" set, and your single-card/single-monitor situation should not be compromised. Windows will not expect another monitor, unless you choose to physically connect one later. Believe me, those paid techs aren't going to spend the time understanding your unusual situtaion, and they're paid to get you off their backs as fast as possible. They're shooting in the dark as we were at first. Try accepting that you'll have two "cards" (really just 2 sets of drivers) listed, and pacify Windows by giving it what it wants. If you feel you need to know the exact skinny, just give me the model number, and I can quickly verify.

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Dear Jeff: I sent you e-mail but haven't heard back so I thought I'd post here again, in case you didn't get my e-mail and see this instead. I look forward to hearing from you in response to my last e-mail with the model number Jaton #61-3D. Thank you.

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hi! i have a problem that is also related to the VGA card, why is it that my pc only allows 16 colors after i've formatted and reloaded wins98? and by the way, i don't know what is the model of my VGA card but windows is saying that my VGA card is working properly, can u guys help? it's hell working on a pc with only 16 colors man... anyway, i happen to see you guys's messages and i was wondering whether u guys can help me, i would really appreciate your help, thanks...

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